A Disturbing Piece of News for a Monday Morning

I don't know if you all saw this new item -- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/24/lambuth -- but it was a little surprising and a little disturbing.

If you have read my own blog, you know that I am from Memphis which is just down the road from Jackson and Lambuth University.  My own college choices had been pretty well set when I graduated in 1968 so I never considered Lambuth as a college.

But I had friends who did and one friend of recent times went there to get her Bachelor's Degree in preparation for the ministry.

And now we read that the school is being sold to private investors.  The primary reason given in the article is financial so we can just add "so what else is new?"

But what does this say for the future of Methodist-based education in this country?  Will Lambuth still be a Methodist-related institution or will it give up its affliation?  In light of other comments being posted about the direction of the church as a whole, what does it say about being a Methodist (United or otherwise)?